Debt

Most eyes have been on Greece, where events are coming to a climax. Meanwhile, a less-noticed financial collapse has overtaken Puerto Rico. That commonwealth has racked up debts of $72 billion, which seems astonishing for an island with a population of 3.6 million, not much more than Iowa. Puerto Rico’s governor now says that “the debt is not payable.” That seems to be true of a lot of sovereign debt »

A year or so ago, the Democrats started telling us that the national debt is no longer an issue. This was based on the fact that the deficit is only around half what it was during President Obama’s first few years in office. The fiscal year 2014 deficit came in at *only* $483 billion, a cause for rejoicing in Washington. This represents the smallest deficit as a percentage of GDP »

Back in May I suggested, less than half facetiously, that if we are indeed to consider paying reparations for slavery, the Democratic Party should have to pick up the entire tab, for all of the obvious reasons. I was reminded of that idea when stumbling across the most interesting story on the front page of today’s New York Times: “Finding $816 Million, and Fast, to Save Detroit.” The details are »

Two summers ago, we ran the Power Line Prize contest to try to focus attention on the exploding national debt. The contest was successful, in that it incentivized the production of many high-quality videos, songs, pictures, and other media that highlighted the debt crisis, which were viewed millions of times. But like all other efforts to call attention to the debt crisis, it had limited effect, if any. Periodically the »

Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler gave United States Senator Tom Coburn the treatment yesterday. He awarded Senator Coburn three Pinocchios for Senator Coburn’s assertion that the United States has $128 trillion in unfunded liabilities. You may have caught the Wall Street Journal’s Saturday Interview with Stanley Druckenmiller; Druckenmiller actually provides a higher number (more here). I reached out yesterday to Senator Coburn’s office for a response. Coburn spokesman John »

Returning from a business trip to Washington, D.C., tonight I was delighted to find Senator John Thune waiting to board the 7:15 p.m. flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul at Reagan National Gate 21. As I said hello, Senator Thune could not have been warmer. I asked him about his trip home. If I understand correctly, he said he was going home for the induction of his father, age 93, to the »

Yesterday, the White House finally released its proposed budget. The media promptly touted it as a major step forward, one that can produce a grand bargain on deficit reduction if only Republicans will respond in kind. The gushing first paragraph’s of the Washington Post’s story (by Lori Montgomery) are typical. But Obama’s proposal cannot serve as the basis for a grand bargain. Although it contains some useful steps forward on »

The big news in the upcoming Italian election is the rise of former comedian Beppe Grillo, whose party may finish as high as second in the voting. There is a lot about Grillo at The Corner. He sounds like a pretty typical bad-government populist; normally you would think it would be a disaster if he took power, but this is Italy, so things may or may not get worse. What »

Throughout the “fiscal cliff” drama, I argued that once the middle class tax increase was called off (as seemed almost inevitable), Republicans would have the upper hand because President Obama fears sequestration more than Republicans do (or should). The key, then, was to keep sequestration on the table or, as I put it, “to go over half of the fiscal cliff.” Now that we are about to take that plunge, »

Can’t the government, at the end of the day, just print money, with the unfortunate downside being inflation? It turns out that it isn’t actually that simple, because the framers of our financial system were pretty farsighted. And that, in turn, sheds light on why the debt ceiling is non-trivial. The Grumpy Economist, John Cochrane of the University of Chicago and the Hoover Institution, explains: First, just to be clear, »

I share Scott’s deep outrage at Barack Obama’s exploitation of children to advance his cynical political agenda. Obama’s misuse of children is doubly contemptible, since his administration has done more than any in our history to sell the younger generation’s future down the river–a river of debt. Michael Ramirez manages to find a glimmer of humor in Obama’s hypocrisy: »

Our children are slated to drown under a tsunami of debt. Do they have any hope? Maybe, as the Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee explain: Currently, almost 95 percent of spending on means-tested poverty assistance falls into four categories: cash assistance, health assistance, housing assistance, and social and family services. Welfare spending has increased on a year-over-year basis regardless of whether the economy has improved or unemployment has declined, »

Much of the debt limit discussion is dishonest, like this statement from the Obama White House: There are only two options to deal with the debt limit: Congress can pay its bills or it can fail to act and put the nation into default. This is wrong: under the 14th Amendment, the US cannot default on its bond obligations, and there is no need to do so. Federal revenues are »

I had never been interested in guns until a little over a year ago, when I fired a handgun for the first time. To make a long story short, it turned into a hobby–the first I have ever had, as my wife points out. So when, by sheer coincidence, gun issues suddenly emerged in the same moment when I happened to know something about guns, the result was inevitable: I »

Yesterday four Democratic senators–Harry Reid, Dick Durbin, Patty Murray and Chuck Schumer–wrote a letter to President Obama urging him to take all “lawful steps” to increase the debt limit, with or without the Republicans. Byron York points out that all four of these Democrats voted against increasing the debt limit in 2006. At that time, the Democrats pretended to be outraged by the deficits of the Bush administration, which were »

The United States is over $16 trillion in debt. The point is rapidly approaching where our young people cannot look forward to a prosperous future, and in November voters chose to make matters worse rather than better. Michael Ramirez depicts the avalanche that is about to descend on our heads: »

The current federal debt ceiling will be reached next month, and Democrats have been furiously posturing to limit the gains that Republicans can make in exchange for the House’s agreement to raise it. President Obama insists that he will not negotiate over the debt ceiling–not ever, not for anything–and Republicans should agree to raise it without getting anything in return. (This is much the same as his position on taxes.) »